Author: Barry Thompson

I recently ran into a little Quickbooks quirck so I thought I would give you a warning. When I archive something on a computer my expectation is that if I need it I will be able to pull it up and use it. When processing W-2’s I archive them inside Quickbooks. I can see a link to them so I have always believed that if I needed and old W-2 for an employee I could just pull it up and print it. No need to store nasty paper documents for 3 years because I do a great job of backing up my data and if I need it I can get it.

Well here is my latest discovery. Quickbooks uses an image of a blank W-2. The data that goes on the w-2 is archived but the image is an active file an is update from year to year. So, if you need to print a 2015 W-2 in 2017 because an employee approaches you and has lost the original you can’t do it. You will have the correct data for the 2015 W-2 but the image that it pulls up will be 2016 form W-2.

For me that is not a real big deal because I always have back years of pre printed W-2’s. I also have the software to use the archived data so I can reproduce a lost or misplaced W-2 for an employee. But most folks don’t have the software or the forms just laying around so if you have relied on those archives you may have a problem. My recommendation is keep a copy of the employee W-2’s on paper for a minimum of 3 years. That way if you need it you will have it.

Maybe the guys at Intuit have never had an employee lose a W-2 in a future year. I doubt there are many employers that have not had a similar request at least once. Maybe we can get the programmers to give a choice or maybe we can get them to create a real pdf archive that does not depend on their W-2 image file. I’m not holding my breath.

Any of us that have ever shopped online and then gotten on Facebook to find them sending targeted ads has been a little creeped out. Well yesterday I got a whole new creeper experience. My wife was shopping on her I-Pad for a particular item. I log on to Facebook 10 hours later and receive a targeted ad to an item that local vendors do not stock which she was shopping. So I ask Jason Nunnelley, he knows such things, and he tells me it is Double Click. If you want to know about Double Click just Google it. If a simple product can do this what do you think Governments of the world know about you and I? It’s big time creeper.

I abandoned this web site about 3 years ago and began posting the same type of information on Facebook. My intent was to allow Facebook to be my primary web presence. I quickly gained a following and established a pretty decent distribution on my post there. So I continued to post and everything seemed fine. Then Facebook changed the way they distributed post to the users and my reach per post was reduced by 75% or more. I first sought to recover that distribution by getting folks to like and or share the articles. It does work but it is very time consuming. Unless you write something that strikes a big nerve, and get several shares from folks you don’t even know, distribution even among the people that like your page is sparse. Unpaid big distribution rarely happens. Turns out most folks are content to take care of their own tax situations and other than telling a friend “I use Barry Thompson and you would probably benefit by using him too” they don’t spend that much time sharing good tax advice. That is a major problem on Facebook for me.

I recently discovered another major reason to keep this sight up to date with fresh content. When I maintained this site on a regular basis by adding new and interesting content I was at or near the top in most major non paid advertising categories for CPA’s in Cullman, AL. When I stopped and began doing most of my sharing on Facebook I lost that placement in the search engines. Bottom line is I lost online marketing visibility by forgoing my website in favor of Facebook.

I am sharing this with you for two reasons: 1. I made a terrible decision that cost me money. I want those of you who will to learn from my mistake. 2. I am letting you know that I will be keeping this site updated on a regular basis. I will continue to share on Facebook to some degree but I will focus most of my efforts on this site. I love to get questions from you and share the answer publicly. I don’t use your name unless you want it that way so feel free to ask. If you have the question chances are many others do as well and everybody gets a chance to increase their knowledge. Knowledge about taxes and minimizing them legally is what I am all about.

In closing I want to say that I do not think Facebook is dead by any means. It is not the best way to build your web presence and benefit from the time it takes to share information with people. I have some ideas on how to use Facebook for my best benefit by integrating with things I post here however control over your asset is the best policy. Jason Nunnelly told me this more than once but I didn’t learn from his wisdom. Be smarter than me. Learn second hand from Jason and from my experience shared.